As we watch Jemisin experimenting with different voices, forms, techniques, settings, and characters in stories that for the most part make use of the familiar traditions of the form: quick narrative hooks, deftly sketched characters, clean linear plots (sometimes wound tight as a mainspring), satisfying payoffs. The 22 stories that make up How Long ’til Black Future Month?, the oldest dating back to 2004 and four original to the book, comprise a collection that is a bit old-fashioned in the best sense of that term. In her introduction, Jemisin recounts how, back in 2002, she wasn’t really interested in short forms for some very good reasons: they didn’t pay well, they required different skills from the big-ticket novels she wanted to work on, and the chances of a black woman writing about her own concerns and getting published at all were not nearly as good in 2002 as they are now (thanks in no small part to Jemisin’s own successes). I am happy to report that, on the basis of How Long ’til Black Future Month?, the former might be disappointed while the latter should be pleasantly surprised. Jemisin has with huge architectonic structures like the Broken Earth and Inheritance trilogies, readers might be excused for greeting her first story collection in either of two ways: gleefully expecting more of the same, or cynically suspecting a series of outtakes or early yeomanlike exercises. When an author achieves as much success as N.K.
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